let's go with Him

 Thomas...oh, Thomas. His life as a follower of Yeshua is so often overshadowed by the title, "Doubting Thomas," due to his insistence on needing to see for himself the proof that his Messiah had risen from the dead.

Yet here he is, shown in a very different light.

Jesus was telling His friends that they were about to head back to Judea, the place where the people had already tried to kill Him at least twice. Thomas tried to be the voice of reason--"Hey, um... the last time You were there, they tried to stone You to death, remember?" Yet despite the reminder, Jesus was choosing to go back.

We remember him for his doubt, but here we have a very clear picture of a different side of Thomas:

"Let’s go so we can die with Him."
(John 11:16)

Too often in the United States, we forget that followers of Christ are not promised a life of ease. In fact, the Jewish Messiah we follow--the One who was despised and rejected by the very people He came to save--promised the exact opposite:

"In this world, you will be plagued with times of trouble,
but you need not fear; I have triumphed over this corrupt world order."
(John 16:33b)

We are called to follow the Messiah. The path ahead is unsure--rocks, pitfalls, detours, dead ends--but He doesn't call us to follow only when we're happy with where He's leading. He calls us to follow when all we can see ahead of us is a road we would rather not take. He calls us to follow when we think the road can only lead to our destruction.

We are walking out into a world that is growing more and more combative toward Biblical truth, and if we stand on and for those truths, we will face hard times. Though persecution is new to those of us in the United States who have been sheltered for 200 years, our brothers and sisters around the world are not strangers to persecution and danger. In fact, many of them have faced it for 2,000 years. So like Thomas, may we choose to follow the Savior--even if the path ahead seems to only lead to death.

Because when you serve the Risen Savior, even death isn't the end of the story.

art majors

 My oldest daughter is an artist. She has a sketchbook with her at pretty much all times, and she has the kind of skill that is unimaginable to me. She studies the techniques of others all the time, and right now she's teaching herself animation. Her goal is to one day make children's television programs, shows that parents will know are safe for their kids and teach traditional values.

She's graduating next month, so she's being asked all the time what her plans are for college. I've listened to her tell people many times, and it makes me sad. I finally asked her to do me a favor the other day: "Please stop apologizing when you tell people what you're going to study."

I think it caught her a little off guard, but her response? It was something along the lines of, "But Mom, I'm going to be an art major. That's who all the jokes are about."

I asked her what I thought of at the time: "Are you making the decision that you think God wants you to make for your future?"

Now, though, I've had more time to think about how I wish I would have responded in that conversation...

This world is an incredible place. As a physicist, what stands out to me the most about God's creation--what wow's me and makes me marvel at the awesomeness of the Creator--is the order that permeates everything. I see how you can use F=ma as the base for calculating the motion of objects, and I think how amazing it is that something so complex can boil down to something so simple. I think back to my Quantum Mechanics class in grad school and see my professor work through a problem that had him erasing the whiteboard three times, only to have everything come down to one simple equation:

 

I read verses in Hebrews and Colossians, letters written two thousand years ago, and see how even then God was giving the writers of those letters insight into the rules of physics underlying the world:

 "It was by Him that everything was created:
the heavens, the earth, all things within and upon them,
all things seen and unseen, thrones and dominions,
spiritual powers and authorities.
Every detail was crafted through His design, by His own hands,
and for His purposes
 He has always been!
It is His hand that holds everything together."

(Colossians 1:16-17)

My major was one that seemed to impress people...but that wasn't why I chose it. In fact, there were more times than not that I wished people didn't think it was impressive, because it made me uncomfortable to tell people what I was studying. God blessed me with a logical, analytical mind. I love patterns and puzzles, and physics gave me the opportunity to see God in how order was always pulled from seeming chaos. I was drawn to physics, and through all the courses I took over the years, I have become more in awe of the God who set the universe in motion, the One who holds everything together.

But God isn't limited to only being a physicist (though I'm so often amazed by that part of Him). I'm also incredibly thankful that God is an artist. I'm glad He created a world that behaves according to reason and logic, yet is full of beauty. He didn't limit the universe to ones and zeros. It is full of artistry that I can barely comprehend. And while I can look at the beauty around me and appreciate it, I don't see it the same way an artist does. I don't see every nuance of color and shape. I don't see the way everything works together the way an artist does. I wasn't gifted in that way, but I'm incredibly glad others are.

I'm thankful for the art majors. I'm glad God has gifted them with a portion of His creativity, His eye for beauty, His desire to see His children surrounded with amazing things. I'm glad they can put pen to paper (or brush to canvas... or color to pixels...) and capture part of that beauty.

That's one of the incredible things about God. From the very beginning, He made it a point to gift His creation with a wide variety of skills and abilities. He made some to be artists, some physicists, some farmers, some programmers, some teachers, some engineers, some moms, some musicians... people blessed with all sorts of gifts, because all of those gifts give us tiny glimpses of Him. All of the abilities we see and admire in the people around us point us back to the Creator, the One who has all those gifts wrapped up in one...along with a whole host of things we can't even imagine.

So whatever your gift, use it. Serve the God who created you by using the gifts He gave you, and point to Him.